1) The child is mentally or physically incapacitated
2) The child is 14-16 years of age and employed
3) The child is 5-7 years of age and a written request for removal is submitted

The course of study must offer at least one thousand hours of instruction, at least six hundred hours of which will be in reading, language arts, mathematics, social studies and science or academic courses that are related to the aforementioned subject areas and consonant with the pupilâ€™s age and ability. At least four hundred of the six hundred hours shall occur at the regular home school location.

A homeschool should keep the following as evidence, or equivalent:

1) A plan book, diary, or other written record indicating subjects taught and activities engaged in, and...
2) A portfolio of samples of the child's academic work, and...
3) A record of evaluations of the child's academic progress

The production by a parent of a daily log showing that a home school has a course of instruction which satisfies the requirements of this section shall be a defense to any prosecution under this section and to any change of action brought pursuant to chapter 210, RSMo. 167.042:

A letter of intent should be submitted yearly:
(EDIT: As pointed out below, this is optional...)

For the purpose of minimizing unnecessary investigations due to reports of truancy, each parent, guardian, or other person responsible for the child who causes his child to attend regularly a home school may provide to the recorder of deeds of the county where the child legally resides, a signed, written declaration of enrollment stating their intent for the child to attend a home school within thirty days after the establishment of the home school and by September first annually thereafter. The name and age of each child attending the home school, the address and telephone number of the home school, the name of each person teaching in the home school, and the name , address and signature of each person making the declaration of enrollment shall be included in said notice. A declaration of enrollment to provide a home school shall not be cause to investigate violations of section 167.031. The recorder of deeds may charge a service cost of not more than one dollar for each notice filed.

Last edited by Theodore on Mon Nov 14, 2005 5:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.

In response to the letter of intent part, this is NOT required by law! As a state wide homeschool organization leader and in contact with the Homeschool Legal Defense crew we both highly recommend against turning this paper work in. This is just another way for the government to try to keep up with us and eventually turn on us and require to have us sign this no matter what.<br>

If your child is in the public school you need to write a letter to the superintendent letting them know that you are removing them from the school system and are responsible for his/her schooling. But other than that you don't need to do anything in the state of MO as far as letting anyone know you are homeschooling.<br>

For the plan book/diary that Missouri requires, I have printed off log sheets on which to record the time my son spends daily on each subject, and whether it is core or non-core, home or away from home, etc. but...how detailed should I be?

All the log book has to show is that your son is putting in x number of hours in each subject at the proper level for his age and ability. That means you need to include a grade level (7th Grade Mathematics) or topic (Algebra 1/2), but you probably don't need to go into specifics (Properties of Fractions).

You can, of course, always contact the school board to get the official word on what they're looking for. just make sure to get that in writing, or it's not much use as evidence later.

Theodore wrote:All the log book has to show is that your son is putting in x number of hours in each subject at the proper level for his age and ability. That means you need to include a grade level (7th Grade Mathematics) or topic (Algebra 1/2), but you probably don't need to go into specifics (Properties of Fractions).

You can, of course, always contact the school board to get the official word on what they're looking for. just make sure to get that in writing, or it's not much use as evidence later.

Thanks for the info. Theodore! I have reworked my log book to include grade level in each column heading (8th Grade Math; 8th Grade Science) and in the rows across (for each day) I will put the number of hours and other pertinent stuff.

Now if only I could figure how best to spread the 1,000 hours over our "school term" I'd be doing good.

5. The production by a parent of a daily log showing that a home school has a course of instruction which satisfies the requirements of this section shall be a defense to any prosecution under this section and to any change of action brought pursuant to chapter 210, RSMo. 167.042:

For the purpose of minimizing unnecessary investigations due to reports of truancy, each parent, guardian, or other person responsible for the child who causes his child to attend regularly a home school may provide to the recorder of deeds of the county where the child legally resides, a signed, written declaration of enrollment stating their intent for the child to attend a home school within thirty days after the establishment of the home school and by September first annually thereafter. The name and age of each child attending the home school, the address and telephone number of the home school, the name of each person teaching in the home school, and the name , address and signature of each person making the declaration of enrollment shall be included in said notice. A declaration of enrollment to provide a home school shall not be cause to investigate violations of section 167.031. The recorder of deeds may charge a service cost of not more than one dollar for each notice filed.

You are not actually required to turn in any of your record-keeping. You could choose to do so if you want, but as noted above, HSLDA recommends that you don't, and records are basically just there in case the worst happens and you need to produce them as evidence of a homeschool program. No notice that you've started a homeschool program is necessary either, though if you're transferring to homeschool from public school, you probably want to let the public school know so they don't come after you for truancy.

I am in Missouri and was a public school teacher in Missouri, we home school now! You will NEVER have to show your records to anyone! DESE does not have the man power to over see home school. The only person who can demand seeing your logs is your county prosecuting attorney and they don't bother because they have bigger fish to fry.